The Philadelphia Flyers are in a unique situation. They are a fairly good hockey team finding some success this season, but are still self-aware enough to realize that what they need to do is focus on the future more than anything. That alone feels like they are one of the most forward-thinking teams in the entire NHL.
While we don’t want to toot any horns or pat Briere’s back for some hard work before his vision has been fulfilled, most teams that find themselves in the playoff race way earlier than expected, would double-down. Trading away good draft picks for win-now talent in the name of keeping this feeling alive. But not this Flyers front office, no, they are solely set on looking ahead and are not being blinded by this team’s record.
With this whole future-looking scenario in mind, the Flyers still can have their cake and eat it too. They can hope for some more wins to come and an unexpected playoff appearance to happen, while also trading off players they deem as not part of the future contending team, for players and draft picks who might be.
But, what if the Flyers accelerated this just a little bit.
Our very own Joe DeMarini already went over why and how they could do this. Instead of getting purely draft picks in exchange for the players like Sean Walker, Morgan Frost, or Scott Laughton mid-season, the Flyers could instead aim for players who have been drafted and have played pro hockey already. And as a plus, they already have experience doing this.
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